10 OCTOBER 1903, Page 27

Treasure and Heart. By Mary Deane. (John Murray. 6s.)— Treasure

and Heart just misses being a very interesting book. The story is fairly constructed, the Italian miss-en-scene is dis- tinctly good, and the characters are not badly drawn. But there is a certain failure of energy about the book which makes it miss the mark at which it aims, and, to speak frankly, the story occasionally verges on the tedious. Just a little more vitality on the part of the writer and the novel would have become living and interesting. The book is well written, the English being distinctly above the average of that of the ordinary writer of fiction, which makes its comparative failure the more regrettable. Let us hope that Miss Deane will try again, and will succeed in giving real vitality to a second. book.